American Legislative Exchange Council

The American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) is an organization whose goal for the past forty years has been to draft “model bills” that conservative legislators can introduce in the 50 states. It was established in 1973 by Henry Hyde, Lou Barnett, and Paul M. Weyrich, the latter of the Free Congress Foundation. The organization has been semi-secretive (makes knowing its members difficult information to find), has been highly influential, has operated quietly in the United States for decades, and received remarkably little scrutiny from journalists, media or members of the public during that time. Superficially, ALEC’s membership is mostly made up of thousands of state legislators, each of whom pays a nominal membership fee to attend ALEC's retreats and receive model legislation. ALEC’s corporate contributors pay far more to gain access to legislators and distribute to them corporate-crafted legislation. Thus, while ALEC's membership appears to be mostly from the public sector, the groups funding is almost entirely private sector. In reality, ALEC's public-sector membership dues account for only around one percent of ALEC’s annual revenues. 81.7% of ALEC's income comes from corporations, while just 1.3% comes from legislator dues.

ALEC claims to be nonpartisan, but its free-market and pro-business goals are clear. The result of ALEC's efforts has been a consistent pipeline of special interest legislation being funneled into state capitols across the United States. In 2009 ALEC was responsible for 826 bills being introduced into state houses across the country, of which 115 were enacted into law.

Since its inception, ALEC's goal has been to draft "model bills" that conservative legislators can introduce in the 50 states. The group's website claims that in each legislative cycle, its members introduce 1000 pieces of legislation based on its work, and claims that roughly 18% of these bills are enacted into law. Among these laws was the controversial 2010 anti-immigrant law that was passed and signed by the governor in Arizona.

Description and membership
ALEC is a tax-exempt front group for the legislative agenda of global corporations.

One of ALEC's primary funders are the trusts associated with the controversial Koch family, that includes David Koch, a billionaire and one of the leaders of one of the richest privately held corporations in the world, Koch Industries.

ALEC drafts bills that comport with the ideological and corporate agenda of the Kochs and its allied funders. These bills favor corporations and include proposals to weaken the rights of employees and the ability to secure a healthy environment, which it shares with state and local politicians. The National Resources Defense Council and Defenders of Wildlife have called ALEC "corrosive, secretive and highly influential" and a "tax-exempt screen for major U.S. corporations and trade associations that use it to influence legislative activities at the state level."

It has been reported that companies "like Enron, Amoco, Chevron, Shell, Texaco, Coors, Koch Industries, Nationwide Insurance, Pfizer, National Energy Group, Philip Morris, and R. J. Reynolds pay for essentially all of ALEC's expenses." Corporate membership fees are reported to range between $5,000 and $50,000 with additional fees of $1,500 to $5,000 a year to participate in ALEC's various task forces. However, corporations spend more than that. For example, Exxon has donated far more than a million including funding set aside for specific projects like "global climate change" and "energy and climate." The total from Koch stands at $408,000 according to Greenpeace.

An exclusive club
Individuals can gain membership in ALEC in one of two ways. Elected Republican legislators are allowed to join after they have been individually vetted and pay a token fee of approximately $100 per biennium to join. Beyond that, the cheapest membership is the "Washington Club" membership level, at a fee of $7,000, which does not include access to ALEC's annual meeting, but lets you into the "members only" section of ALEC's web site. The next level of membership is the "Madison Club" level, $12,000, which includes one registration to the group's annual meeting. The third level is the "Jefferson Club" level, which costs $25,000, and gives the member access to ALEC's VIP events and a few other perks. ALEC has nine task forces, or subcommittees, which have separate (and also extraordinarily high) fees to join. The cheapest subcommittees are "Commerce, Insurance and Economic Development," "Education" and "Public Safety and Election," which each cost $2,500 to join. The most expensive subcommittee is "International Relations," with a membership fee of $10,000. The "Telecommunications" committee costs $5,000 to join.

Mainstreaming corporate and right-wing causes
"When ALEC began, it comprised only a handful of right-wing legislators; by 1991, it had grown into a clearinghouse of information for 2,400 conservative  officeholders in 50 states, almost one third of the 7,500 state legislators in the country." It has tried to cultivate "moderate" legislators to expand its influence.

William Bennett, Jack Kemp, John Sununu, and George W. Bush have all addressed ALEC sessions in recent years.

Lobbying
ALEC's lobbying and crafting of legislation is done by the large corporate defense law firm Shook, Hardy & Bacon. which has long-time ties to the tobacco industry and the Pharmaceutical industry. Both have long used ALEC’s ability to get a wide swath of state laws enacted to further the interests of its corporate clients.

Is ALEC Lobbying or Educating?
NPR brought up the question of whether ALEC is actually lobbying when it holds corporation-funded conferences, which would cause ALEC to lose its non-profit status.

"Much about ALEC is private. It does not disclose how it spends it money or who gives it to them. ALEC rarely grants interviews. Bowman won't even say which legislators are members. Is it lobbying when private corporations pay money to sit in a room with state lawmakers to draft legislation that they then introduce back home? Bowman, a former lobbyist, says, "No, because we're not advocating any positions. We don't tell members to take these bills. We just expose best practices. All we're really doing is developing policies that are in model bill form."

NPR also reported that videos and photos from an ALEC conference had banquets, parties and baseball games hosted by corporations for attending legislators. "Tax records show the group spent $138,000 to keep legislators' children entertained for the week.

As of 2011, legislators don't have to declare these conferences as corporate gifts. Many ALEC members also receive "scholarships" to pay their way to these conferences. But it's not clear who's really paying. NPR also reported that looking at Arizona's legislators who attended the ALEC conference, no one declared receiving gifts. "Sen. Pearce and a dozen others wrote that they received a gift of $500 or more from ALEC. A review of the two dozen states now considering Arizona's immigration law shows many of those pushing similar legislation across the country are ALEC members. In fact, five of those legislators were in the hotel conference room with the Corrections Corporation of America the day the [immigration] model bill was written. The prison company didn't have to file a lobbying report or disclose any gifts to legislators. They don't even have to tell anyone they were there. All they have to do is pay their ALEC dues and show up."

Wisconsin
The ALEC acronym has appeared in numerous articles and blogs pertaining to Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker and his agenda to end collective bargaining rights for unions -- and not only in Wisconsin. The similar bills - some even more extreme than Wisconsin's - in states like Ohio, Michigan, Indiana and Maine, all include very well organized and very closely worded bills that mirror the "model bills" of ALEC. Although varying in the degree of severity, these bills have the common denominator of corporatizing state government.

In late March 2011, a prominent University of Wisconsin-Madison history professor landed himself in the middle of the ALEC and nationwide debate that started in Wisconsin. Professor William Cronon, a highly-regarded professor of history, geography, and environmental studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and self-described "political centrist," was asked by the state Republican Party for access to his work emails under the state Open Records Law.

Cronon started his blog, titled "Scholar as Citizen," the week before. His inaugural post was about the ties between Scott Walker, ALEC and several collective bargaining bills in Wisconsin and throughout the country that were making their way through the legislative process to become law. Cronon wrote:

"'Which Wisconsin Republican politicians are members of ALEC? Good question. How would we know? ALEC doesn’t provide this information on its website unless you’re able to log in as a member. Maybe we need to ask our representatives. One might think that Republican legislators gathered at a national ALEC meeting could be sufficiently numerous to trigger the “walking quorum rule” that makes it illegal for public officials in Wisconsin to meet unannounced without public notice of their meeting. But they’re able to avoid this rule (which applies to every other public body in Wisconsin) because they’re protected by a loophole in what is otherwise one of the strictest open meetings laws in the nation. The Wisconsin legislature carved out a unique exemption from that law for its own party caucuses, Democrats and Republicans alike. So Wisconsin Republicans are able to hold secret meetings with ALEC to plan their legislative strategies whenever they want, safe in the knowledge that no one will be able to watch while they do so.'"

Cronon ends his post by saying: "'ALEC’s efforts to disenfranchise voters likely to vote Democratic, for instance, and its efforts to destroy public-sector unions because they also tend to favor Democrats, strike me as objectionable and anti-democratic (as opposed to anti-Democratic) on their face. As a pragmatic centrist in my own politics, I very strongly favor seeking the public good from both sides of the partisan aisle, and it’s not at all clear to me that recent legislation in Wisconsin or elsewhere can be defended as doing this. Shining a bright light on ALEC’s activities (and on other groups as well, across the political spectrum) thus seems to me a valuable thing to do whether or not one favors its political goals. This is especially true when politicians at the state and local level promote legislation drafted at the national level that may not actually best serve the interests of their home districts and states. ALEC strategists may think they’re serving the national conservative cause by promoting legislation like the bills recently passed in Wisconsin–but I see my state being ripped apart by the resulting controversies, and it’s hard to believe that Wisconsin is better off as a result.'"

Cronon also wrote an oped piece for the New York Times on March 21, 2011. He traces Wisconsin's workers' rights tradition back to Republicans and states how Governor Scott Walker is diverting off the path that was laid by his party. Cronon also draws parallels with references to the McCarthy era: "'Scott Walker is not Joe McCarthy. Their political convictions and the two moments in history are quite different. But there is something about the style of the two men — their aggressiveness, their self-certainty, their seeming indifference to contrary views — that may help explain the extreme partisan reactions they triggered. McCarthy helped create the modern Democratic Party in Wisconsin by infuriating progressive Republicans, imagining that he could build a national platform by cultivating an image as a sternly uncompromising leader willing to attack anyone who stood in his way. Mr. Walker appears to be provoking some of the same ire from adversaries and from advocates of good government by acting with a similar contempt for those who disagree with him. The turmoil in Wisconsin is not only about bargaining rights or the pension payments of public employees. It is about transparency and openness. It is about neighborliness, decency and mutual respect. Joe McCarthy forgot these lessons of good government, and so, I fear, has Mr. Walker. Wisconsin’s citizens have not.'"

The GOP did not take to kindly to these two pieces that received media attention that buzzed around the country (Cronon's blog post got over 500,000 hits). They filed their FOIA request two days after Cronon's March 15 blog post and asks for "Copies of all emails into and out of Prof. William Cronon's state email account from January 1, 2011 to present which reference any of the following terms: Republican, Scott Walker, recall, collective bargaining, AFSCME, WEAC, rally, union, Alberta Darling, Randy Hopper, Dan Kapanke, Rob Cowles, Scott Fitzgerald, Sheila Harsdorf, Luther Olsen, Glenn Grothman, Mary Lazich, Jeff Fitzgerald, Marty Beil, or Mary Bell."

Cronon called on the Republicans to withdraw their request on March 24th in his blog, saying: "I find it simply outrageous that the Wisconsin Republican Party would seek to employ the state's Open Records Law for the nakedly political purpose of trying to embarrass, harass, or silence a university professor (and a citizen) who has asked legitimate questions and identified potentially legitimate criticisms concerning the influence of a national organization on state legislative activity," Cronon wrote.

For another good resource on current (2011) members and bills is an Alternet.org article from March 31, 2011.

Ohio
A surprising ally in Ohio is fighting one of the most extreme union-busting bills in the country. The Wall Street Journal reported in March 2011 that Senator Bill Seitz, ALEC’s 2008 “legislator of the year” for his support of free markets and limited government, is working to revise the bill that curbs union rights. Seitz, along with five other Republicans, voted against the bill and are pressing for revisions in the state House, after it was passed in the Senate 17-16. The Wall Street Journal reported that the bill "would take away the ability of public-employee unions to negotiate over pensions and health benefits, and tie wage increases to performance instead of years of service. The bill would do away with binding arbitration in contract disputes, and let elected officials choose their own contract offer over a union's when negotiations break down. Unions are threatening to try to overturn any new law through a ballot referendum."

Newly-elected Governor John Kasich pushed the bill that goes further in scaling back public-employee union rights than the controversial measure recently passed in Wisconsin, which was opposed by five Republican lawmakers. Some lawmakers, Seitz included, are afraid of voter backlash if the bill is passed as-is in the Senate. "Mr. Seitz believes the bill could be tossed out by voters unless some changes are made. "I am cast in an unlikely role" as the improbable labor ally, he said. The lawmaker was named "legislator of the year" in 2008 by the American Legislative Exchange Council, a group of more than 2,000 lawmakers nationwide who support free markets and limited government."

Voter Disenfranchisement
In 2011, ALEC drafted and circulated legislation, obtained by Campus Progress, "that appears to be the inspiration for bills proposed by state legislators this year and promoted by Tea Party activists, bills that would limit access of young people to vote."

In Wisconsin, although most of the attention was on Gov. Scott Walker's union-busting bill, a Senate committee proposed a law, backed by Walker, that would ban students from using in-state university- or college-issued IDs for proof-of-residency when voting. "If this legislation becomes law, it would become one of the strictest voter registration laws in the country and would provide significant logistical and financial barriers for a variety of groups, including student and minority voters."

A similar bill, as Campus Progress reported in February 2011, was proposed in New Hampshire. State House Speaker William O'Brien (R- Hillsborough 4) says that proposed election legislation will "tighten up the definition of a New Hampshire resident." O'Brien claims that college towns experience hundreds of same-day voter registrations and that those are the ballots of people who "are kids voting liberal, voting their feelings, with no life experience."

Many of the state proposals appear to stem from model legislation known as the Voter ID Act (also known as Photo ID) that was developed by the American Legislative Exchange Council.

New Hampshire and Wisconsin both have ALEC members represented on the committees. In Wisconsin, that member is Rep. Scott Suder (R-District 69), the state's Majority Leader, who steered it through the Wisconsin State Assembly. That legislation includes provisions similar to the ALEC model legislation, which Campus Progress obtained from a source outside of ALEC.

Other groups are using ALEC-drafted bills as well, like The Wisconsin Patriot Coalition, a network of conservative grassroots groups from across Wisconsin. The group lists the Voter ID Act in its [legislative agenda] and directly links back to ALEC as its source.

"There is no evidence of widespread or systemic voter fraud occurring in the U.S. in recent history," says Robert Brandon, president of FELN. "These photo ID bills really are a solution in search of a problem. I don't understand why state legislatures would seek to spend millions of dollars implementing laws to fix a problem that doesn't exist. With most states facing such high budget deficits, this just seems irresponsible."

For more information on this issue, visit Campus Progress' Web site.

Keeping an Eye on ALEC
Governing Magazine reported in 2003 that "A consortium of major labor unions, environmental organizations and public interest groups set up the Partnership for Public Trust in 2003 to keep an eye on ALEC and the progress of its model legislation. Groups of legislators have formed themselves into coalitions to fight ALEC on a regional basis or in a specific policy area. Several other groups, patterning themselves on the ALEC model, have fashioned themselves as ideological alternatives, crafting and promoting model legislation more to their own liking. "It took progressives a while to realize what the hell was going on," says Leon G. Billings, a former Maryland legislator. "Conservatives have lots of money to propagate their viewpoint and the left doesn't."

Andy Gussert, Director of the Citizens Trade Campaign, started an organization the same year to combat ALEC's hold on state legislators called ALICE. There are also several similar groups that are working to expose ALEC's work and create competing bills, like ALECWatch.org.

"The groups on the left are at a disadvantage because of ALEC's enormous fundraising capacity and 30-year head start in attracting members. ALEC's annual budget is $6 million, which is supplemented by expenditures from private sector members who provide campaign contributions and "scholarships" that cover travel expenses for legislators attending ALEC functions. Legislators pay just $50 for a two-year membership, but businesses pay up to $50,000 to join. "You have to recognize that because ALEC is funded by profit-making industries, they have tremendous resources at their disposal," says Julian Zelazny of the State Environmental Resource Center, one of the critics. "You can sum all these groups together and our budgets still won't come anywhere near to being a fraction of ALEC's."

Funding
ALEC's budget was previously reported to $5,025,388. According to Media Transparency ALEC had received 53 grants over the period 1985-2002 totalling $2.836 million from a handful of right-wing foundations. 

The foundations that have dontated to ALEC include:
 * Charles G. Koch Charitable Foundation
 * Claude R. Lambe Charitable Foundation
 * Allegheny Foundation
 * Castle Rock Foundation
 * JM Foundation
 * Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation
 * John M. Olin Foundation
 * GreenPeace published information on just how much ALEC has received from the Kochs between 1997 and 2008: $408,000.
 * ExxonMobil has also been a generous funder of ALEC. ExxonSecrets.org reports that ExxonMobil has given $1,410,200 to ALEC since 1998.


 * ALECWatch.org wrote a report about ALEC and included an extensive list of funders HERE. The chapter, called "The Deep Pockets" can be read HERE.

Substantive agenda
State Budget Reform Toolkit

Opposing health care reform
In December, 2009, Raw Story and ThinkProgress.org reported that BCBS Association had been quietly working with the ALEC to draft a resolution that would use the issue of state's rights to make health care reform (and regulation of the insurance industry) unconstitutional. ALEC drafted and distributed model legislation in the form of a resolution, that would effectively make both a federally-created health insurance exchange and a public health insurance option illegal under the 10th Amendment to the Constitution, which guarantees certain non-specific rights to the states. Joan Gardner, a senior executive at the Blue Cross Blue Shield Association, (BCBS' lobbying group) admitted playing a key role in crafting the resolution. Christie Herrera, who directs a health task force at ALEC, reports that insurance industry lobbyists have been working with ALEC to promote it to legislators. The resolution, and amendments closely related to it, have already been introduced in at least half a dozen states. ALEC has been working behind the scenes for months to advance the idea that proposals put forth by President Obama and the Democrats to regulate the insurance industry and enact a public option, violate states' rights.

By August, 2009, ALEC's "Tenth Amendment/health care resolution" had been introduced by Republican legislators in Indiana, New Mexico, North Dakota, Minnesota, Wyoming, West Virginia, and Florida, and Arizona's legislature voted to put it on the ballot in 2010, according to ALEC Health and Human Services Director Christie Herrerra.

Anti-environmentalism
DOW and NRDC argue that ALEC plays a central role in reversing environmental legislation across the country: "ALEC is the corporate-funded pivotal point where this network--ranging from national organizations like the Heritage Foundation to state-based think tanks that comprise the State Policy Network--connects".

For example, at a May 2004 ALEC forum, industry groups proposed a "Biotechnology state uniformity resolution" that would, in effect, disallow communities from passing resolutions against genetically-engineered seeds, crops or animals. The ALEC proposal came in response to "resolutions opposing the unregulated use of" genetically-modified organisms passed by "close to 100 New England towns" and bans on genetically-engineered crops and livestock passed by "three California counties, Mendocino, Trinity and Marin."

Within a year's time, assisted by state Farm Bureau chapters and pro-industrial agriculture state legislators, "fifteen states ... introduced legislation removing local control of plants and seeds. Eleven of these states have already passed the provisions into law," according to Britt Bailey and Brian Tokar. 

In August 2005 George W. Bush spoke at annual conference of the American Legislative Exchange Council. Bush praised ALEC because of its "results-oriented nature". The role of government, Bush said, "is to create an environment in which the entrepreneurial spirit can flourish, in which dreamers can be -- realize big dreams". In his speech Bush said he was working to promote "safe, clean nuclear power" and the "wise" burning of coal "so that we can protect our environment."

In early 2003 ALEC also helped the hunting group, the U.S. Sportsman's Alliance draft the controversial bill titled "The Animal and Ecological Terrorism Act." ALEC has backed the bill and started to promote it to legislators in all 50 states.

Climate Change
ALEC - which is in part funded by ExxonMobil - also opposes any US action to implement the Kyoto Treaty on reducing greenhouse gas emissions. "States should reject every form of Kyoto legislation for the very same reasons as our leaders in Washington, D.C.," said Sandy Liddy Bourne, ALEC's Environment, Natural Resources, and Agriculture Task Force Director.

By 2010, ALEC was offering legislative templates to state lawmakers to oppose regional efforts toward climate change mitigation. Raegan Weber, ALEC’s senior director of public affairs, said the group has produced 800 to 1,000 pieces of “model legislation.” The ALEC’s template for “State Withdrawal from Regional Climate Initiatives,” has cropped up in nearly identical form in resolutions or bills in at least six states:


 * WHEREAS, there has been no credible economic analysis of the costs associated with carbon reduction mandates and the consequential effect of the increasing costs of doing business in the State of ______;
 * WHEREAS, forcing business, industry, and food producers to reduce carbon emissions through government mandates and cap-and-trade policies under consideration for the regional climate initiative will increase the cost of doing business, push companies to do business with other states or nations, and increase consumer costs for electricity, fuel, and food;
 * WHEREAS, the Congressional Budget Office warns that the cost of cap-and-trade policies will be borne by consumers and will place a disproportionately high burden on poorer families;
 * WHEREAS, simply reducing carbon emissions in the State of ______ will not have a significant impact on international carbon reduction, especially while countries like China, Russia, Mexico, and India emit an ever-increasing amount of carbon into the atmosphere;
 * WHEREAS, a tremendous amount of economic growth would be sacrificed for a reduction in carbon emissions that would have no appreciable impact on global concentrations of CO2;
 * WHEREAS, no state or nation has enhanced economic opportunities for its citizens or increased Gross Domestic Product through cap and trade or other carbon reduction policies; and
 * WHEREAS, Europe’s cap and trade system has been undermined by political favoritism, accounting tricks and has failed to achieve the carbon reduction targets,
 * THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED, that the legislature of the State of ______ urges the Governor to withdraw [state] from the regional climate initiative.

In 2010, the language appeared in a resolution [PDF] introduced in the state House of Representatives, demanding that the state drop out of the Midwestern Greenhouse Gas Reduction Accord. In 2011, the language had shown up in resolutions in Montana, New Mexico, Oregon, and Washington calling for the states to quit the Western Climate Initiative. In New Hampshire, it appeared in the “findings” section of a House bill that would repeal the cap-and-trade system established under the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI). When asked about the section, the bill’s lead sponsor, state Rep. Richard Barry (R), admitted that none of the bill’s sponsors had written this particular section, but stopped short of saying ALEC was the source of the text. A New Mexico resolution was stalled in committee, according to sponsor Rep. Tim Lewis (R). Oregon state Rep. Kim Thatcher (R), sponsor of the resolution in her state, reportedly contacted Americans for Prosperity, the Heritage Foundation, and the Cascade Policy Institute for their input, all funded by Koch Industries.

Telecom fronting
"In telecommunications and broadband (my main interests) ALEC’s private sector members include AT&T, BellSouth, the National Cable and Telecommunications Association, SBC Communications (now merged with AT&T), Sprint, Verizon Communications and more," wrote TeleTruth's Bruce Kushnick in November 2007.

ALEC's model legislation on telecom issues includes the "Advanced Voice Services Availability Act of 2007," "Broadband Parity Act," "Cable and Video Competition Act," and the "Municipal Telecommunications Private Industry Safeguards Act."

These "bills have been showing up in states to block municipalities from offering broadband, to give AT&T and Verizon statewide cable franchises with no restrictions, to wipe out public accountability and gut consumer protections. They would block competitors and eliminate as many regulations as they can get away with," Kushnick wrote. He gave the example of ALEC's broadband bill, which according to Muniwireless.com, would "make it easier for state legislatures to pass anti-municipal broadband laws."

Tobacco industry coordination
ALEC has a significant history as a tobacco industry ally. It has been an entity through which Philip Morris (PM) launders favors and donations to legislators. ALEC was mentioned as an ally in a 1987-89 R.J. Reynolds strategic plan to help the company "create an atmosphere of tolerance and fairness in the public's attitude toward smoking and smokers." RJR proposed that ALEC would be a friendly legislative group who would have "the willingness to tell our story in such a manner that it becomes their position."

For example, in 1994, PM sought to leverage ALEC as an ally in promoting what the company refers to as its "proactive programs" (programs designed to slow or stop legislated efforts to reduce smoking, particularly before they start). In one example, in 1994 PM worked to get ALEC to advance a resolution in favor of the company's Accommodation Program, a program it promoted nationally to restuarants and bars to delay or defuse legislated smoking restrictions.

Similarly, a 2001 internal PM presentation titled "LEGISLATORS, POLICY MAKERS & ALLIES 2001 PLANNING" discusses PM's need to expand alliances with public policy groups, and specifically mentions ALEC as a potential ally to help PM "sieze the initiative" (from health groups) and "reframe the debate" on the health hazards of secondhand smoke by changing the focus of the issue from health to "informed choice."

Immigration
In 2010, Arizona's Immigration law, called the "Support Our Law Enforcement and Safe Neighborhoods Act" by supporters, requiring police to arrest anyone who cannot prove they entered the country legally when asked. NPR wrote a series of investigative articles in 2010 about ALEC's and the prison industry's role in the bill that could incarcerate hundreds of thousands of illegal immigrants, with private prison companies standing to make millions.

"The largest prison company in the country, the Corrections Corporation of America, was present when the model immigration legislation was drafted at an ALEC conference last year," reported NPR. Arizona state Senator Russell Pearce was the mastermind of the legislation of the law and brought it to ALEC to craft it into a well-worded bill that was backed by numerous companies.

"'ALEC's Bowman says that is not unusual; more than 200 of the organization's model bills became actual laws over the past year. But he hedges when asked if that means the unofficial drafting process is an effective way to accelerate the legislative process. 'It's not an effective way to get a bill passed,' he says. 'It's an effective way to find good legislation.' The difference between passing bills and 'finding' them is lobbying. Most states define lobbying as pushing legislators to create or pass legislation. And that comes with rules. Companies typically have to disclose to the public what they are lobbying for, who's lobbying for them or how much they are spending on it. If ALEC's conferences were interpreted as lobbying, the group could lose its status as a non-profit. Corporations wouldn't be able to reap tax benefits from giving donations to the organization or write off those donations as a business expense. And legislators would have a hard time justifying attending a conference of lobbyists. Bowman says what his group does is educate lawmakers. 'ALEC allows a place for everyone at the table to come and debate and discuss,' he says. 'You have legislators who will ask questions much more freely at our meetings because they are not under the eyes of the press, the eyes of the voters. They're just trying to learn a policy and understand it.' Much about ALEC is private. It does not disclose how it spends it money or who gives it to them. ALEC rarely grants interviews. Bowman won't even say which legislators are members.'"

Personnel
National Board of Directors:

2011
 * Noble Ellington National Chairman - Louisiana Representative
 * Dave Frizzell First Vice Chairman - Indiana Representative
 * John Piscopo Second Vice Chairman - Connecticut Representative
 * Linda Upmeyer Treasurer - Iowa Representative
 * Liston Barfield Secretary - South Carolina Representative
 * Tom Craddick Immediate Past Chairman - Texas Representative

Private Enterprise Board, Members:

2011
 * Sano Blocker - Energy Future Holdings
 * Don Bohn - Johnson & Johnson
 * Jeff Bond - PhRMA
 * Bill Carmichael - American Bail Coalition
 * Derek Crawford - Kraft Foods, Inc.
 * John Del Giorno - GlaxoSmithKline
 * Matt Echols - Coca-Cola Company
 * Jim Epperson, Jr. - AT&T Services, Inc.
 * Michael Hubert - Pfizer Inc
 * Teresa Jennings - Reed Elsevier, Inc.
 * Ken Lane - DIAGEO
 * Kelly Mader - Peabody Energy
 * Bernie McKay - Intuit, Inc.
 * Mike Morgan - Koch Industries, Inc.
 * Kevin Murphy - ExxonMobil Corp.
 * Sandra Oliver - Bayer Corporation
 * David Powers - Reynolds American Inc.
 * Maggie Sans - Wal-Mart Stores, Inc.
 * Russell Smoldon - Salt River Project
 * Toby Spangler - Altria Client Services, Inc.
 * Roland Spies - State Farm Insurance Co.
 * Pat Thomas - United Parcel Service
 * Jerry Watson - Chairman Emeritus

Board of Scholars

2011
 * Kay Coles James - With J.C. Watts Companies and is the former director of the U.S. Office of Personnel Management
 * Dr. Arthur B. Laffer - The founder and chairman of Laffer Associates, an economic research and consulting firm
 * Stephen Moore - Joined The Wall Street Journal as a member of the editorial board and senior economics writer on May 31, 2005
 * Victor Schwartz - A partner in the Washington office of the Kansas City-based law firm of Shook, Hardy, and Bacon, LLP, and chairs its Public Policy Group
 * Dr. Richard Vedder - A Distinguished Professor of Economics at The Ohio University in Athens, Ohio. He has written extensively on labor issues, authoring such books as The American Economy in Historical Perspective and, with Lowell Gallaway, Out of Work: Unemployment and Government in Twentieth-Century America
 * Bob Williams - Founder and Senior Fellow of the Evergreen Freedom Foundation, a public policy organization in Olympia, Washington.


 * A list of ALEC State Chairman can be found HERE.
 * A list of current Staff and Contact Information can be found HERE.

Former leaders and staff

 * Donald Ray Kennard Chairman - Louisiana Representative
 * Susan Wagle First Vice Chair -Kansas Senator
 * Senator Billy Hewes, III Second Vice Chairman -Mississippi
 * Earl Ehrhart Treasurer - Georgia Representative
 * Delores Mertz Secretary -Georgia Representative
 * Jim Dunlap, Immediate Past Chair - Oklahoma Senator

The members of the Private Enterprise Board included:
 * Ken Ardoin - Pfizer Inc;
 * Walt Buchholtz - ExxonMobil;
 * John Del Giorno - GlaxoSmithKline;
 * C. T. Howell - Chlorine Chemistry Council;
 * Jeffery A. Lane - Procter & Gamble;
 * Kenneth F. Lane - Diageo;
 * Bernard F. McKay - Intuit Inc.;
 * Roger L. Mozingo - R. J. Reynolds Tobacco Company;
 * J. Patrick Rooney - Golden Rule Insurance Company;
 * Alan Smith - Ohio Casualty Group;
 * Patrick Thomas - United Parcel Service
 * Kurt L.Malmgren - PhRMA;
 * Jerry Watson - American Bail Coalition;
 * Scott Fisher - Altria Corporate Services, Inc.;
 * Pete Poynter - BellSouth Corporation;
 * Edward D. Failor, Sr - Iowans for Tax Relief;
 * Michael K.Morgan - Koch Industries, Inc;
 * Allan Auger - Coors Brewing Company;
 * Ronald F. Scheberle - Verizon Communications, Inc.

Other names from IRS 990 Documentation
 * Senator Steve Faris, National Chairman
 * Senator L. Patrick Engel
 * Speaker William Howell
 * Rep. Jane Cunningham, Treasurer
 * Speaker Tom Craddick
 * Rep. Dolores Mertz

Former Staff
 * Lori Roman - Executive Director
 * Mike Flynn - head of legislation and Policy
 * Alexandra Liddy Bourne - also known as Sandy Liddy Bourne
 * Christie Raniszewski Herrara - head of the health and human services task force (previously public affairs director for the James Madison Institute)
 * Daniel Simmons - director of the national resources task force (previously a research fellow at the Mercatus Center at George Mason University)
 * Andrew Schauder - director of federal affairs (previously an assistant to then-Attorney General Ashcroft)

Contact information
1129 20th St., N.W., Suite 500 Washington, D.C. 20036 Phone 202 466 3800 Fax 202 466 3801 E-mail: infor@alec.org Web: http://www.alec.org/

Related SourceWatch articles

 * Paul M. Weyrich
 * Koch Industries
 * Shook, Hardy and Bacon

External articles

 * Bill Berkowitz Exclusive: Unaccustomed to Hot Seat, ALEC Talks to BuzzFlash at Truthout blog, April 7, 2011
 * American Association for Justice Ghostwriting the Law for Corporate America, Report, May, 2010
 * Lisa Graves, A CMD Special Report: Who Is the League of American Voters? The First in a Series on the Squawkers for Walker, PRWatch.org, March 2, 2011
 * Alternet.org story on ALEC and their ties to Republican bills, Alternet.org, March 31, 2011
 * American Legislative Exchange Council, 2002 Annual Report, page 3.
 * Defenders of Wildlife and Natural Resources Defense Council, "Corporate America's Trojan Horse in the States: The Untold Story Behind the American Legislative Exchange Council", March 2002.
 * K. Moran, "Sportsmen's Group Targets Anti-Hunters", The New York Post, 10 January 10, 2003, page 86.
 * John Nichols, "ALEC Meets is Match: State Activists Are Learning How To Fight Back Against The Right's Powerhouse", The Nation, May 29, 2003.
 * "Burgeoning Conservative Think Tanks: The Madison Group: Heritage Offshoots Seek to Influence State Legislation," Responsive Philanthropy, Spring 1991 page 20; cited in People for the American Way, "Parental Rights", undated, accessed May 2004.
 * ALEC, "'Sons-of-Kyoto' Legislation: States React to the Myth of Global Warming", Press Release, Washington, January 21, 2004.
 * Britt Bailey and Brian Tokar, "Big Food Strikes Back: Ag Industry Aims to Strip Local Control of Food Supplies," CounterPunch, May 26, 2005.
 * George W. Bush, "President Discusses Second Term Accomplishments and Priorities", Speech to American Legislative Exchange Council, August 3, 2005.
 * Joshua Holland, "Creating a Right-Wing Nation, State by State", AlterNet, November 16, 2005.
 * Charu Gupta, "The American Legislative Exchange Council Helps Ohio Republicans Sell Out To Big Business", Free Times, May 11, 2006.

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